


Scenes from a Life Yet to Be Lived

by BellaTheReal



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Not Beta'd, bear jack..., hints of sexual attraction LOL, post-retirement, softbod!jack, they're grown ups fr fr
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-12
Updated: 2019-05-12
Packaged: 2020-03-02 08:26:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,156
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18807424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BellaTheReal/pseuds/BellaTheReal
Summary: Post-retirement, Jack's gotten a little soft. Bitty comes home to him after two months of not seeing his boyf (tragic). He comes home to a surprise!





	Scenes from a Life Yet to Be Lived

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sasstrick](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sasstrick/gifts).



> This was an indulgent little ficlet that i did for a good friend :) hope y'all like it, maybe I'll do more from this series.... but dont hold me do that bc I'm a fool.

Bitty hasn’t seen Jack in 2 months. It didn’t happen out of carelessness, their schedules are hectic and that’s the nature of their lives. Jack is in his second year of retirement and has been working on his next project. His first year out of the NHL he tried coaching hockey at Providence College and while he’d really enjoyed it and the kids were great, he just wanted to change gears. Bittle was nothing but supportive when Jack had set down a few pamphlets, saying he wanted to get his Master’s and then, much later, his PhD. 

  
“Takes a while so we’ll see,” Jack had said, always one to downplay his interests, if not for the sake of other people then it was to protect himself. 

 

Once he got into it, though, Jack had really hit his stride. It was everything he loved about being at Samwell but he didn’t have to think about hockey ever again. Well, sometimes he had to because of interviews and the annual award ceremony for the scholarship he’d set up for Samwell for LGBTQIA+ athletes, but other than that his life was consumed by the archives at Providence College and the local library. 

 

Bitty on the other hand, was taking off in his career. After a few years of going from job to job, first at a library (awful, Bitty should’ve known he didn’t want to be somewhere quiet for 8 hours a day, he almost went insane) and then at a bakery (good, but restrictive!) and then there was a memorable stretch where he’d been a pastry chef in a restaurant’s kitchen which was loud and he could do what he want but the hours were awful and driving Eric into the ground. One day he’d come home and he had poured himself a cup of gravy from the fridge instead of juice, it was then that he decided to look into something else.

 

So he went back to his vlogs. 

 

It was something he had always kept at, something he was good at, and it provided a lot of flexibility that Bitty didn’t know he needed. So, for the past five years, Bitty had amassed a huge following and was now promoting his first cookbook,  _ Cooking for a Crowd: Recipes for Families, Hockey Teams and Everything In Between.  _ It focused on crowd cooking on a budget and on dietary restrictions. Needless to say, it got popular. 

 

So popular that Bitty had been on a book tour for that past couple months and for the last 3 weeks of it, his webcam decided to check out and he hadn’t had a breath to get it fixed. Face Time was out of the question too since Jack still stubbornly had an Android, though he promised that he’d make the switch after this torturous stretch of time without having seen each other. 

 

“I think I’ve forgotten what you look like,” Jack said one day when he was on the phone with his boyfriend. 

 

“So I guess that means you haven’t been watching the interviews, huh? Caught ya,” Bitty chirped. 

 

But 2 months had come and gone and Bitty was finally in the elevator that would take him to the floor that would bring him to his apartment with Jack. He was practically buzzing with anticipation as he opened the door and headed straight to the kitchen where he heard Jack, toiling away. 

 

Bitty smiled when he saw his cookbook spread out on the counter, though everything in him froze immediately when a total stranger was standing at the kitchen island, chopping vegetables. 

 

“Jack?!” Bitty breathed, dropping his bags, “You look… different!” 

 

Jack’s hair was getting longer--everywhere. It was beginning to curl at his neck, he remembered Jack mentioning he needed to get a haircut but his dear boyfriend neglected to mention that he also hadn’t shaved. Not his face not his… chest, good Lord. Bitty felt dizzy. 

 

Jack was a…  _ bear _ . 

 

Retirement coupled with Bitty’s fairly indulgent cooking (although they promised to be conscious of health, they had more opportunity to just enjoy themselves) left Jack a little soft. His abs had been covered, a soft and slightly round stomach taking its place. Jack was still so solid but he’d just widened a bit in his hips too, which Bitty adored.  The first time Bitty had noticed was when he straddled Jack’s waist in bed and he felt his legs stretch some more. It had definitely Done Things and that evening had been an especially good one. 

 

This, though, Jack’s hair covered in thickening patches of dark hair, trailing all the way down and disappearing in under his sweatpants. Bitty had always known that Jack had the probability of being hairy. His ams were and his legs were as well but this totally changed everything. Bitty was so busy staring he hardly noticed Jack had stepped around to greet him, though he snapped to attention when he was pulled into a kiss and Bitty was free to touch, and touch he did. His hands rested on Jack’s chest, brushing through the hair there before he smoothed them up to Jack’s shoulders. He felt Jack beginning to pull away but Bitty kept him close, deepening the kiss.    
  


Bitty pulled away just enough to speak, his lips still glancing across Jack’s, “I haven’t seen you in two months I think I deserve more than a hello peck, Mr. Zimmermann.” 

 

“He goes away on a book tour and comes back a diva, I see,” Jack responded as he picked Eric up far too easily with those solid arms and set him on the counter. 

 

“How come you didn’t say anything about this?” Bitty said, minutes later when they finally had enough sense to stop kissing and start talking. ‘This’ was indicated by Bitty touching Jack’s beard and then his chest. 

 

“I didn’t think I had to update you on my manscaping,” Jack grinned before going on to explain, “My razor broke and I just never got around to getting another one and it started growing and once it stopped itching I didn’t really mind it.”

 

Bitty hummed in reply, currently distracted by Jack’s chest again. 

 

“I--,” Jack paused, “I mean, if you don’t like it, I can, you know, shave.”

 

Bitty shook his head immediately, maybe too quickly, “No! No, don’t… don’t shave. I like. I like this a lot. I like you a lot. You’re kinda-- I mean. You’re a bear now.” He blushed as he laughed, and Jack’s red ears indicated the same feeling. 

 

“Yeah? Didn’t know that was your type, Bits,” Jack said, not so subtly moving his hands under Eric’s legs to pick him up again and walk him to the bedroom, the prep for dinner left behind. 

 

Bitty’s smile was ear to ear as he was laid back into bed, a pair of strong retired hockey player hands already reaching for his belt, “You’re my type, Jack Zimmermann.” 


End file.
